


Solo

by tekowrites



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Love Triangles, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 01:59:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tekowrites/pseuds/tekowrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy is a dancer who’s about to embark on the greatest challenge of his career, and just maybe his life as well. Will he and the friends he’s made along the way, succeed? Or will they leave the stage defeated.</p><p>Young Avengers Dance AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been playing with this idea for a while, the first chapter wrote itself, and I can see it’s going to be another long project, so I hope you enjoy it. Most of my knowledge of dance comes from marathoning SYTYCD, and being an avid fan for years. I may slip up, so forgive those slips. No beta (Surprise! Not.)
> 
> Rating is PG for now, will change for sure.

“Billy Kaplan? Please head to the stage.”

Feelings of anticipation, sweat cooling on my skin, my eyes straining at the harsh light; that’s how every audition goes, how every expression of my soul in performance, is introduced by my body.

They hear the track, and I hear my rehearsed counts. One, two, three, pirouette, four, five six, leap, one, two, three, arabesque, hold position, four, five, six, extensions, back leap, turn, hold center and finally, present.

No stares of disapproval, then again, I feel the world as if it were upside down, I’m coming down from a high.

“Thank you Mr. Kaplan, please join the rest in the waiting room.”

I don’t shuffle along, my feet are light, I was born with a pointed toe.

“Tommy Shepard? Please head to the stage.”

Tommy gives me a grin, too far to pat my back, and I cross my fingers for him as something wild, loud and powerful signals his cue to dance. Show off.

I catch faces in the crowds, people I’ve seen before, other’s I’ve auditioned with. A smile there, a wave over there and I’m tired.

“Did you see him? The new kid.” I look at Cassie and nod. You couldn’t really miss him, the blond number waiting to audition. He’s average sized compared to dancers I’ve seen in miss Scarlet’s dance studio, but here, he’s one of the tallest and most built dancers around.

There’s always the incredibly lanky and androgynous looking dancers, the slightly built dancers with decent upper body shape and strong legs, but rarely do you get the full package. A package that was hiding under really loose shorts.

Tommy huffs his way back to the waiting room, pretending to have exercised tremendous effort in his solo. I roll my eyes and make room for him on the bench. I keep quiet and watch the rest of the auditions, he on the other hand proceeds to chat up all the girls in the room with us.

Kate Bishop is someone we’ve met quite often at these large scale production auditions, but she’s nowhere in the waiting room. She’s a phenomenal dancer and her dad’s a platinum sponsor for this dance company. Cassie’s a little doll, her dad used to be a dancer too, but he passed away due to a head injury while performing a difficult piece. The producers dot on her, as she’s spent her whole life around this stage and the founders while her dad was alive. I could see her in this production, but who else?

There was Eli, Eli’s grandfather was a legend in dance, shortchanged by the fact his company refused to cover his medical bills when their promise of medical insurance turned out to be false. As a dancer, he danced with great soul and power, but anyone could see that all his training and technique were the results of trial and error and not proper classes. Unlike Tommy and I.

While we’d trained under the same dance instructor, Miss Scarlet, for years, our living situation hadn’t been the same until about a year ago. We were orphaned quite a long time ago, and sent to different foster homes. I ended up at the Kaplans’ home, a loving family that really cared about me and my passion for dance. Tommy’s foster family had been nothing but a disaster, hoarding orphans for the pay and beating him up when he got older. As part of our family visit rights as twins, we met up every week during my classes and his, which the Kaplans kindly paid for.

It was much, much later that I found out about how Tommy was treated there when he got older. Miss Scarlet found out first, and he’d been staying at the studio quite often until he finally broke off from the family and stayed with us. Tommy kept our original last name, while I held on to one the Kaplans gave me.

Miss Scarlet hadn’t shown up to see our auditions, some old feud she said about breaking promising dancers. She strictly forbade us from mentioning which studio we came from when we auditioned. She didn’t like to talk about the past much, but I could tell that this particular company had something to do with it.

I snapped out of my reverie when I heard the same piece of music I had been using, get played again. It was that new kid, Teddy something, he was performing. I looked on, amazed at his different interpretation of the melody. Where I had chosen to move across the stage, he’d come down to the ground, reaching out his hand, before leaping backwards to denote rising back from despair. I was entrapped, caught in his performance, and waiting, the crescendo of the music, the moment it was reaching the height of the storm. He jumped.

The split was so perfectly executed, that he landed almost soundlessly back on the surface of the stage, and swept his leg backwards. But that jump would haunt me forever. For just that split second, he had flown across the stage. It was an outstanding jump, like gravity hadn’t had a hold on his body, free to float as it did.

There was a standing O, and more reaction than I’d seen from the frozen panel of poker faces. The overall air was of cheer and respect, we waited for him to make his way to where we were, but he was stopped, and someone directed him to a different room.

“That’s not fair, stealing him away.” Cassie grumbled next to me, she’s always been the type to make friends with everyone, so I could see how this felt like a lost opportunity to her.

Her intentions might have been pure in wanting to meet the new dancer, but she couldn’t see what was unfolding in some of the individuals whom, just moments ago had been lost in applause. Jealousy and envy were as much rife in the world of dance as respect and adoration were. Anyone deserving special treatment was sure to make a lot more enemies than friends.

Healthy competition was all and truly well, only if both were equally talented, and equally confident. I wasn’t preaching to the masses, I was preaching to myself.

By no means am I belittling Tommy’s problems, but I had a set of my own, in the shape of competitors, of a different sport. It was no big surprise that people found dancing too ‘feminine’ for men, nor a surprise that I got bullied for being a contemporary dancer, the real surprise was that I hadn’t been killed off for being gay as well.

The end of auditions brought me back to the real world, and my nerves were fried to bits now that it was the show and tell moment.

In most productions, the show is divided into pieces to tell a story, showcasing different talents, solo acts, a duet, couples, and then group numbers. Sure they differ with the introduction of the main duet in and out of other numbers, but it rarely varies from that pattern. There were big names in different genres of dance in this one, and the scouting ad had point blank asked for versatile dancers.

Tommy was pretty much safe with his Jazz and Broadway background, but all I had to fall off on were years of classical ballet training and then a dominance of contemporary. Sure I could accomplish a dashing pirouette, but I was no Jazz hands for the ladies.

I wasn’t kidding myself with a leading role, but I wanted bigger exposure than being in only the group numbers. I crossed my fingers and hope I’d done enough.

Several names were called to the front, I looked around and neither Tommy, Cassie or myself had been called. I tried to relax, telling myself the ratio of one out of three always applied, so we still had a chance. The group called was thanked for their time and directed towards the exit with lines such as ‘we have profile pictures, if a place comes up we’ll be sure to contact you.”

When the representative left, we were in for another wait. Eli replaced his headphones sat back for the wait. Tommy was busy trying to get into the pants of redhead,  and Cassie was making friends left and right.

I closed my eyes for a moment, and saw that jump split again, it was etched into my memory now, replying over and over again. When I opened my eyes again, my name was being called.

The office was intimidating, like a conference room it had a large table, and several of the judges on the audition panel were there. I was asked to sit down. They were some of the best in the world of dance, and I could only stare in awe as ‘Vision’ a first class choreographer took a seat across from me. I had no idea where this meeting was going, especially now that an animator was going to critique my completely different style of dance. The rest of the panel included Miss Marvel, the Iron Man, Captain America, and the Spiderman. Of course I knew them by popular nicknames, but I was having such a fanboy moment, I couldn’t have brought my mind back to earth with their professional names. All their names reflected achievements I couldn’t dream of accomplishing, so I hopped they had good news for me.

“You have a unique style of dance, I’ll give you that. The only person we’ve seen who possessed similar technique, isn’t among us now. Which studio did you say you belonged to?”

“I’ve trained in several, I don’t really belong to one or the other.” They hmmed, and I saw a few taking several notes. It was painful to see my credibility being questioned, but I couldn’t break my promise.

“To be frank with you, you’re brilliant at your genre, but we’re not sure if you can translate that into other genres of dance. It says here that you’ve done Jazz, some Ballroom and tap, how proficient was your training in those? Have you done any Hip-hop?”

“I’ve trained in Jazz for two years, and one year each in Ballroom and Tap. I’ve experimented with Hip-hop, but I haven’t been professionally trained.”

Vision nodded, passing my file along. Captain America looked at me, like he was studying my face closely, and I knew what was coming. “Broadway?”

I shook my head.

“Funny, I could have sworn I’d seen you in a production.”

“That’s my twin brother, Tommy, Tommy Shepard. He’s also outside.”

“Ah, makes sense.”

“The format for now is that we need enough classical trained dancers for the group number, we have 3 hours of training for each number on weekdays, where then we’ll be holding auditions later for those to see who’s going on which numbers, depending on their performances and execution of the style.”

“The leads have been chosen already. Changes may occur later, and you might find yourself in several pieces of the performance, so we don’t want to discourage you.”

Miss Marvel smiled at me, drawing the curtains closed on the interview and said, “If you find that this arrangement is suitable, we’d love to have you on board.”

I nodded, shook everyone’s hand and thanked them before I left. The representative caught up with me, drawing up a contract and handing me the folder to read over the weekend and decide.

I heard Tommy being called, so I turned around to see him, but was instead greeted by ocean-blue eyes and the glint of several piercings.

“Hi.”

I swallowed my shock quick, we were so close, and I hadn’t been this close in proximity to anyone since c.p.r training with Jimmy Stidham. I wondered if he’d let me practice on him too.

“Uh.”

“I’m Teddy Altman, new to town.”

“I can tell.” I didn’t mean for it to come out like that, and winced. He must think I’m the biggest stuck up ever. I was about to apologize for that, when I caught a small twitch of his lips.

“I mean. Um. I’m Billy Kaplan. Not new to town, not at all. In fact, very old to town. Awkward social recluse old, dusty. The kind that can’t stop talking. Like now. I mean, nice to meet you. Please shut me up.” I physically restrained myself from further word diarrhea by clamping a hand on my mouth.

Teddy laughed, and it was something bubbly and sweet to my exceptionally sensitive ears. “I’ll remember.” It was almost a whisper, so controlled and effortless at the same time, just like his jump. His body leaned towards mine, like we were going to share secrets with the next breathe we exhaled, and I turned mine, trying to see where we’d fit.

I was having a moment, a sheer magical moment with this guy I didn’t know and whom had such a gorgeous smile and an equally gorgeous face, when Tommy waltz right in and popped it.

“Did you get it? I got it! I signed my contract inside, they already want me for three of the five pieces, can you believe that? We’ve got to celebrate my new beginning, don’t spare any expenses, shower me with pride, bow down before my mighty talent and versi-”

Tommy, the twin gifted with the speed of talk, finally noticed the third addition in the small square of space outside the office and effectively shut up.

“You’re that new kid.”

“Tommy, this is Teddy Altman. Teddy, this is Tommy Shepard, my twin.”

He raised an eyebrow, probably at the different names when both of us were twins. I shrugged, then felt awkward that we were still standing so close. I looked for a distraction, and then Tommy’s words downed on me.

“You already signed the contract? You’re going to get it from Scarlet for real, she explicitly said not to sign anything without taking it back to her to review.”

“You worry too much. Both of you, if she wasn’t a flaming redhead, I’d think both of you were related.”

“If your knee gets busted, or you snap a tendon? Don’t come to me for a loan.”

“Sheesh. That doesn’t happen all that often. Stop giving the new comer a bad impression of me.”

“He’s right though, that was a reckless move. For all you know, we might be doing a nude number and you had just signed off your body.”

Tommy froze, and it was the most still he’s ever been, and I would know that.

“Is that the inside scoop? Did you read the contract?”

“No, but my agent will. Is that who Scarlet is? Your agent?”

“Nah Scarlet is-”

“Uh Tommy I think we need to call mom and tell her the good news. It was really nice meeting you Teddy. I hope we get to work together soon.”

I dragged Tommy behind me, all the while thinking that I’d lost such a great opportunity, and hoping Teddy was interested in a repeat performance too.


	2. Chapter 2

***

“Idiot.”

“That’s really uncalled for.”

“I warned you about signing a contract, and look, I already found a loophole in Billy’s.”

“Well shit.”

“Go to Chopin, cool your head and come back when you can give me a solution.”

“Yes ma’am.”

I watched him shuffle off, he hated Chopin, and the Chopin practice room. My nightmare room was Vivaldi. I’ve yet to choose a favorite though. That’s how we shifted genres of dance, we went to one out of several named rooms, mostly named after composers, and practiced a move to death. The Vivaldi room always reminded me of that time I had a dance partner. I was supposed to tour with a performance group many months ago, and the piece required quite a bit of partner work. It didn’t work out and I pulled out of the tour in the end.

Having a dance partner is more work than anybody can expect. It’s a task to balance mental and physical wellbeing while doing the steps and knowing any mistake could very well cost you a career, an entire life of something you longed to be, but no longer could do. Balancing emotional wellbeing on top of that? Was a herculean task. We were matched in a lot of aspects of our dancing, but being dropped more than once, missing hand connections and knowing your partner wasn’t always there for you at the right counts, broke the escalating tension of getting the act right, and made us bold with our opinions.

I tried to seal those memories away in the room and I haven’t been back there since.

“Alright then, dwelling on the contract is only an excuse for you to be lazy. Show me that solo again, let’s see what made them push you back.”

I struck a pose, and my mind went blank, it was time to perform.

Dinner was celebratory pizza, and Dad paid. Tommy was satisfied as long as it didn’t come out of his own pocket.

We ended up in my room that night, discussing the audition, people we knew who also made it.

“Kate Bishop is in the production.” I volunteered his favorite subject, and Tommy ran with it.

“She’s the main lead, her and the new kid if he agrees.”

I raised my eyebrow, “And you know this how?”

“I saw her in the interview room, she walked in to say she was leaving, and they told me.”

“They did mention the leads were already chosen, but isn’t that a hasty decision? Rather than a swan, she’s a bird of prey in her dancing.”

“Rumor has it it’s not just in her dancing.” Tommy wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I rolled my eyes.

“Is that all you ever think about?”

“You’re in no place to judge me. If I hadn’t walked in when I did, you’d have mauled the new kid right there in the refreshments’ room.”

“Funny that’s not how I remember it.”

“He’s interested, that’s for sure.”

“We both know you think the entire population of ballet and contemporary male dancers are gay. You can afford to have that fantasy, because you don’t have to test it out and get kicked in the face.”

“You’re just too scared to take a bite of what you want.”

“Did you just..”

“Ew. I need a mind scrub now.”

I hit him with my pillow, and a pillow war commenced.

Dad shouting that he’d come up here had us scrambling to get into our beds, whispering threats of bodily harm in the studio to each other.

***

I got the okay from Miss Scarlet, and a list of negotiable conditions I should mention, amongst other tiny details that needed clarifications. Tommy faired a little worse as she’d nearly shredded his contract with red lines and told him not to come back crawling with tears of blood on his face when they worked his little ass into a state of exhaustion. Sometimes it was hard for me not to see how alike both of us were, if only in the way we ganged up on Tommy.

I was able to amend  most of everything on my contract, except for the part where I would need to give a couple of month’s notice if I planned to leave. Which was fair I guess, but then, you never know when the impulse would strike.

Classes started the minute ink hit my contract, as did the meager cash flow of post-production. I met several of the people in the last waiting group in the first rehearsal for the group number, but the number and faces varied with each different style. Some people were sure they didn’t want to be part of other pieces of choreography. You couldn’t blame them really, it’s not easy to transition from pointed ballet feet to the elasticity of Latin ballroom or the stiffness of an upper body hold in close position. You also needed to watch out for the flicks and kicks, and your balls in case the number was a tango and you were required to practice several rounds of ganchos.

The Broadway class was filled to the brim, not because it was easy, but rather because so many dancers saw themselves as swell actors. I could predict the exact moment several of them would drop out, and there it was, after the first round rehearsals was done, Tommy put on a show. He’s always been pretty good at picking up choreography real quick, and that was his moment to demonstrate. The problem with that is that he raised the bar, and so the choreographer, Captain America in this case, had to elevate the performance.

Miss Marvel spelled the beginning of Sparta when we headed to her jazz rehearsal. It was painful. The amount of throwing around, pulling back, splits, side splits and pushing each other around, left all of us drenched in sweat.

“Practice is far from over! That was our warm up, again, from the top!” I wouldn’t have moved a muscle if you’d whipped me into moving again, but Teddy Altman walked in and stood next to me. Pain was overrated became my new mantra and I applied it to practice.

“Up! With the beat! In the back, that’s no way to jump! I need more from the guys, attack it!”

Sometimes I wonder if all this screaming does something to dancers and motivates them, but in reality, the only motivating factor for me seemed to be not stumbling and making a fool out of myself in front of Teddy. If he was struggling any, he was hiding it well.

Miss Marvel clapped her hand twice to bring attention back to her. “Pair up, we’re doing the first three lifts.” The girls almost ran me over to get to Teddy, Tommy made kissy-faces from the other side of the studio, and showed off the blond in his arms. I flipped him off, then heard laughing behind me. Teddy had caught me in the act. My cheeks colored.

Cassie offered to be my partner, which was flattering because she usually partnered with either Tommy or Eli, who had skipped the jazz number. Cassie’s ability to seem gentle while being a total neck-breaking machine was one of the things I loved most about her, but in all truth, it seemed like a very farfetched idea that I would throw her across the stage to show the ‘battle of dominance’ that was supposed to be going on. At one lift, while I had Cassie upside down in the air, she held onto my shoulders for support, and I could almost feel her fingers crushing down the delicate part in that small hollow. All I could think about was hearing someone announce the end of that practice session.

We had an hour long break, food, rehydration, and getting to know the people you worked with. I placed a damp towel on my face and leaned back on the chair. My shoulder blades burned, it felt like Cassie had branded me with her fingers and it hurt.

“Is this seat taken?”

I shook my head, the pain getting to me. I wished I’d brought some muscle cream, or at least a painkiller. It was idiotic really, first week was always disaster week as people fell in and out of accidents.

“You don’t seem too well.”

I almost snapped at whoever it was, it was pretty obvious I was in _agony_ , doubled by the fact that the next rehearsal was for my own genre and I had to bring it or risk losing everything.

“I have an Advil if you want one?”

I stilled and didn’t move, but the person next to me slowly slid the towel away from my face, and gave me a knockout smile. Teddy Altman was a god amongst men, and just his face made me forget the pangs in my shoulder. “Or do you need something…different?”

“Think you can fix it?” I’m not sure exactly why my voice went low and smug, because I knew I wasn’t aiming at flirting with him. Maybe.

“Lie back.” I bit my lip, there were dozens of people hovering around, it must be just a message; but then, why was I so embarrassed about that? Why did I feel exposed all of a sudden? I looked at the training mats used for stretching, and slowly moved there to lay on my front.

Teddy grabbed my towel and disappeared for a while, reappearing with it sufficiently damp. The hot water was an instant relief, and it made the cold air even cooler on my skin when it was removed. At the second session of dampening Teddy placed his palms on the towel, immolating Cassie’s finger positions, before spreading his palm and kneading a small section.

A grunt escaped me, but I kept my head hidden in my folded arms, letting Teddy work his magic. He sat on his knees next to me and leaned down to work the knots in my shoulder, and then inched his fingers closer to the back of my neck. My body shook, the back of my neck was an especially sensitive part and Teddy’s rough fingertips were sliding over that patch of skin and setting every nerve ending I had on fire.  
I pushed my head back, trying to hide my neck almost under my shoulders.  Teddy pulled at my already skimpy shirt, trying to pull it up.

“Um. It’s okay to leave it, right?”

“I just thought you were feeling hot, your ears and face are all red.” As if on cue, I could feel my face growing warmer, and sweat breaking all over my body. Let it never be said I wasn’t impressionable. His other hand traveled across my back, and then settled at the end of my t-shirt, his fingers touched the silver of skin exposed there, chilled tips on heated skin.

“I-I think my shoulder is better now. Thanks for the help.”

“No problem,” Teddy patted my butt and I stiffened, barely able to believe he’d just done that, “class is starting, I look forward to your performance.”

I was in big trouble.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of Sept 2012, this work is incomplete.

It was a battlefield.

Another brilliant take on the idea of switching gender roles in dance, called for a dance lift. The girls were nodding at the information, taking it in. I was terrified. The number wasn’t easy, one count off and you’d spiral to the floor and kill the momentum of several bodies of dancers moving in unison. But it wasn’t as scary as crumbling to the floor after being mis-lifted by the tiny body of a female contemporary dancer.

The idea, as they explained it to us was as if there was a certain hidden force pushing us together, and we’re trying to pull apart.

“Like a magnetic field. Opposites attract, and you’re trying to resist that attraction. In the end, the inevitable happens, nature wins.”

Very little is original in the dance world, and the idea of pulling and pushing and opposites attract is so overdone it’s become a trope of dance. The only originality then becomes the moves in the choreography, the nuances, the use of negative space, and build up of the tension of the piece.

This was one of those. The individual parts were really showing us off as powerful dancers. Teddy sat this one out, lead dancer and all, while Tommy set himself close to my position. I could feel myself wanting to show off, not just because I might be getting myself another massage, but also because this might be my ticket into other routines.

There was one part where I had to throw myself at the back of the female dancer, so we were back to back, she would curl forward on her body, while I was supposed to bounce off when she snapped back straight. That suited me just fine and I rushed towards my partner, fully intending on making that jump count for something in this class. She saw me coming and braced to act as both a magnet and a repellent, I leaped, holding my feet steady as I came down, we barely touched on that contact, but the minute I felt the heat of her body, I leaped back, throwing myself on the floor and completing my performance.

I heard applause from somewhere and both Melissa -as her name turned out to be- and I turned around to see the instructor's beaming face. "Like that. Now show the class again."

Every couple had to start over, us included, and I favored Melissa with a smile now, we were going to make a good team.

Any actual comment specifically meant for me, came from none other than Teddy, and I could not have been more pleased to hear it. "You showed great control over your feet, it was kind of awesome to see."

"Thanks." I was pleased as punch to hear him talk to me, pleased that all pearly whites flashed in my general direction of being.

He was looking in my eyes, our heights were almost similar, so I kept telling myself it was only because we were at eye-level. But then there was tiny crease of a laugh line next to his eye and a sort of special sparkle -most probably a beatification and slight mental fabrication I was able to develop as a result of so many falls on my head- and it really hit me that he was finding some answering look in my eyes.

We were totally having a moment.

Tommy was on the side, telling that one story about how he had made a jump so spectacular one time, that he ripped his pants. Everyone else's laughter was lost on us, I wet my now dry lips, and as if remembering his were dry too, the tip of his darted out to do the same.

When the first word was going to stumble out of me, the noise level in the room buzzed to a sudden height. We both looked at the same time to find the reason for this sudden commotion that was drowning our little play.

It was Kate Bishop.

She was walking towards us, I realized that a minute too late when she was almost a few feet away, Tommy though, must have zeroed in on that much faster as he was suddenly crowding against me and Teddy to get a better look. I saw Eli stand up straighter from the corner of my eye, but he didn’t make his way over.

“Altman, they need you in the office, schedule adjustments.”

Teddy turned helpless eyes at me, and all I wanted was to drag him away somewhere where he would never have to feel that way again.

Kate looked amused, arms folded, watching the play of emotion on his face, “I can keep them company until you come back.”

I wasn’t sure if Teddy had turned red or not, because he turned away before the rest of the words were out of Kate’s mouth, that didn’t mean my face hadn’t just exploded in color though.

“You’ve probably seen me before, I’m Tommy Shepard.” Tommy extended his hand in greeting, and I wanted his epic moment to die just like mine had.

Kate raised one eyebrow at him, but still moved a hand to shake his. “Charmed, I’m sure.” Tommy seemed to want the handshake to go on forever, and only when Kate seemed to be gritting her teeth, did he sense any danger. Though, knowing Tommy, he might have liked it to get a bit rough.

Self preservation and connections demanded I do the same and introduce myself, so I did, making sure not to linger too much and make Kate think both Tommy and I were sleaze balls.

We stood there awkwardly looking at each other. By awkwardly I mean Kate and I, Tommy looked pleased as all hell, jabbering personal information at such inhuman speed that he could have outrun a train.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

I tried, I really did try to locate Tommy’s feet to stomp them, but he moved aside before I could do that, coming towards Kate from a different more personal angle. I was about to apologize for how he was acting when Kate suddenly moved in, grabbed a forearm, and pressed. There was a note of surprise that was overcome by pain that registered itself on his face, and Tommy moved back a little.

“That was a little uncalled for, don’t you think?”

Eli always made an entrance, and this one was no different, there was an mp3 player poking out of his short’s pocket, and his headphones were resting around his neck. He had one hand pointing towards Kate and Tommy, but he stood frozen next to me, not moving further.

Kate let go of Tommy, and turned to face him instead. “That was defense.”

“Against what? Personal questions? Hardly seems threatening.”

“You might have to rethink that if you were in my position.”

“I wouldn’t be scared of a bit of attention someone is paying me.”

“You’re confusing fear with something else, and straying from the argument at hand.”

“I wasn’t aware we were arguing.”

If sparks could come out of excessive tension, I’d have seen it fly between those two. I looked for a sign of Teddy coming back, but none was falling from the sky.

“Guys, no harm done, look, Tommy is still here, and he’s not complaining.” Complaining would be the last thing he’d be doing, he was so star struck, I thought he might try to get another question in just to see if Kate would touch him again.

“That’s besides the point Billy.”

“No, he’s right, I’m cool. If you give me a chance, I’d like to try that again, you know, for practice purposes.” He favored Kate with a winning smile, completely masking whether his shoulders were in any pain.

They both gave him an incredulous look. I couldn’t blame them, some days, even I had no idea how his brain functioned. I did wonder if Tommy was starved for attention, considering what he’d been through, but the road to success was _never_ excess.

The practice round had been over for ages, so I left the group arguing and headed back to collect my bag. I was still undecided on whether to go directly to the studio, or head home for food, but decided a quick report there before food seemed more ideal than going back and forth later on.

I was just at the exit when I saw Cassie slamming the door of an old car, shut, and running off in the opposite direction it was parked. The person inside the car came out, shouting and asking her to come back, but she was probably too far by then to hear them. The man scratched his head, kicked the side of the car, then got in. He was gone seconds later.

I really wanted to not make it my business, but I was worried over Cassie, and that’s what prompted me to try and look for her. Kate Bishop could take care of herself, but Cassie was a different case, she was still younger than most of us and shouldn’t have to suffer through so much already.

I turned the corner and heard sniffling. She hadn’t gotten far at all, it was worse than I thought, she’d heard but still hadn’t come out to see her stepdad.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded her head, but didn’t stand up or stop trying to apply breathing methods we learned in basic dance classes. In that moment I decided this was bigger than I was, and I had no business getting involved if I couldn’t make sure I was giving her the right sort of help.

“If you don’t feel like going home now, wana come over to the studio I practice at? My instructor is really something else, and I know she’d love to see any of my friends show up. You know, she always calls me a loner, so you’d actually be doing me a  big favor. How about that?”

I waited for her to mull the idea over in her head, and tried not to tap my feet. It wasn’t that I was impatient, I was still wondering if I’d stepped on any toes, so I was nervous about her reaction.

Cassie slowly stood up, I reached down and grabbed her bag, I felt her tense up next to me, so I made a gesture of wanting to hand it over instead. She did take it then, but kept her head down.

I talked while we walked, trying to avoid landmines, I talked about dance instead of family, how practice went, which routines I’m starting to like, and which were kicking my butt. I was getting nowhere with her, so in a spark of genius, I told her Tommy’s pant ripping story. That got a smile out of her, and I silently thanked Tommy for it.

I pulled my key out, and got a little embarrassed when I noticed Cassie’s eyes get bigger at the little keychain. The small Spiderman figure with the bobbing head gave a little dance as I twisted the key in, and I could hear Cassie snort behind me. I lifted it up for her to see again as I walked inside the studio.

“Guilty as charged.”

“I actually find it sweet.”

“Not if you see the rest of his collection.” Scarlet was leaning on the door frame to her office, hands folded.

I scowled at her, she had a collection of red unitards, but you never saw _me_ judging her. I was a fanboy, but her collection was borderline obsession with a throwback to 80’s training suits.

“Scarlet, this is a friend from the dance company, Cassie Lang.”

The smile on Scarlet’s face slid off, and for a moment I thought she looked shaken by the name, but it was gone. She was her composed self when she walked over and greeted Cassie.

“Nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

While it was true that Cassie was a bit of a legend herself, I was still taken aback by how it hadn’t occurred to me that Scarlet would have already heard about her from other instructors, if not by her own merits, at least by the virtue of who her dad was.

“Cassie’s my dance partner in the Jazz practice number, which as you predicted is about everyone trying to kick everyone else’s ass.”

“I miss sultry Jazz numbers, but Jazz for the pleasure of Jazz is supposed to be an old concept, so I understand why they chose this approach with it.”

Cassie looked at the two of us, and I guess she could see it too, the way we sort of looked like each other but didn’t. She directed her question at Scarlet, to which I was grateful. “How long have you been teaching dance?”

“For a very long time. Even before Billy could first point his toes.”

“You look a little familiar, like I’ve seen you somewhere…”

“I’m from out of town, I doubt you have dear. It happens in the dance world though. Speaking of dance, I know how Billy feels about those practice sessions, but what about you?”

Cassie seemed to want to argue the first part further, but I guess the way Scarlet leaned in like she was going to shield Cassie from the world, or some painful knowledge of it, caved her in. I stood there and wondered if Scarlet ever wanted to have kids. It was a weird thought, and I was possessed by a sense of jealousy as it came over me, but I just couldn’t understand why.


End file.
